An Extraordinary Life

On Sunday, August 15, my beloved godmother and great-aunt went home to the Lord.  She was a truly amazing woman, and I wanted to share with you my homily from her funeral Mass. I hope this glimpse into her life inspires you to live closer to the Lord.

Thirty-one years ago, Rose Turano was given six months to live.  But for us who knew and loved her, we know that the doctor’s prognosis meant very little to her.  It didn’t matter what the doctors said.  Her faith in God was strong; her purpose was clear (she had a family to love); and her resolve was unshakable.

We know the outcome: by putting her faith in God, and by living a life of loving service, she won the battle.  I think it’s safe to say that today we are not mourning the death of a woman who lost the battle to cancer; rather, we’re here to remember and pray for a great woman who rose above a terminal illness to live an extraordinary life.

I want to put this funeral Mass in its proper context before I speak more about my Aunt Rose’s life.  First and foremost, what we focus on today is our Lord Jesus Christ.  Ninety-two years ago when Rose was baptized, she received God’s divine life in her soul and became a child of God.  Today, our firm hope is that she is now sharing fully in the Lord’s life and is with Him for eternity.

Aunt Rose loved God, and she believed that Christ died and rose to bring us the fullness of life.  When Christ rose from the dead, He conquered death so that all who are united to Him in baptism and believe in Him have the hope of sharing eternal life with Him.  This leads to the first point about Rose’s life that I want to focus on:

Her faith – Love of God and devotion to the Catholic Faith were at the heart of Aunt Rose’s life.  She and Uncle Jim came to this church every Sunday for Mass.  They also came here once a week to spend an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  Even when she wasn’t able to go to Mass anymore, she still received Holy Communion every Sunday at her home.  Her faith in the Lord was rooted deeply in her heart, but she lived her faith in service to others.  Which leads to second point…

Her selflessness – If you asked me to think of one word that summarized my Aunt Rose’s life, it would be “selfless.”  She never thought about herself or focused on herself.  Her life was always about others.  When she and Uncle Jim met, he had three young, beautiful children from his first marriage.  In an extraordinary act of love, Aunt Rose embraced Cathy, Jim, and Mary Alice as her own, and they embraced her as mother.  And of course, three years later she gave birth to a baby girl, Rose Marie.  Her family was her life.  She was a faithful, loving and devoted wife of almost fifty-two years, an amazing mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and friend.  And like any good Italian mother, she loved to feed people!

A few months ago, when she began to decline, I visited with her in the nursing home.  When I entered the room, I asked, “How are you feeling, Aunt Rose?”  “Oh fine.  But enough about me, how are you?”  After a few more minutes I asked again, “So, are you feeling okay?”  She said, “You know, Michael, when your parents die young you learn to stand on your own two feet.  I’ve never pitied myself.”

That was her life philosophy: no self-pity.  She never complained; she never spoke ill of another.  I never once heard her say the word “cancer.”  In fact, many people didn’t even know she had cancer.  And truthfully, I think that she just forgot about it herself.  I think, early on, she made a decision that she would not pity herself and that she would continue to live a life of love and service.  By doing this, she rose above her illness.  Which leads to my last point…

Her will – Her life was a true testimony to the power of faith in God and the strength of the human spirit.  She was one of the strongest women that I’ve ever known.  It seemed like nothing could keep her down.  Certainly as she got older she wasn’t able to do as much.  But it was hard to tell her to stop cleaning, to stop cooking, to stop waiting on others.  I pray that I can have just one-tenth of her spirit.

From the outside looking in, her life may have seemed rather ordinary: a wife, mother, grandmother, friend.  But for those of us who knew and loved her, we know that she was not an ordinary woman; she was one of the most extraordinary women that we’ve ever known.  Our lives are richer because of her.  Personally, I can say that one of the greatest gifts my parents gave to me is my godparents: Uncle Jim and Aunt Rose.

I can’t end this homily without mentioning the day on which she died.  Sunday, August 15, was the feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven.  I truly believe that on that day, the Blessed Virgin Mary came and took Aunt Rose by the hand to lead her to Eternal Life.

And so we pray for her during this Mass that the Lord will welcome her into the Kingdom of Heaven.  May we honor her by living a life of vibrant faith in God and by serving others.

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